Miami's Total Unemployment Rate Hits 21.8 Percent
MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Each month, much fanfare is given to the release of unemployment numbers. But it turns out; the devil is in the details when trying to figure out the true unemployment rate for a city like Miami.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the month of May, the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall area registered the highest unemployment rate among the top 11 metropolitan areas.
But, the unemployment numbers that are reported each month are simply the people currently receiving unemployment benefits. So while those numbers, especially in Miami-Dade County, have been bad; the true unemployment rate is much, much worse.
The true unemployment rate includes not only those receiving benefits, but also people who are part of the underutilized including: those unemployed but not looking for work, those people who have been forced to work part-time because no full-time jobs are out there, and other marginally attached workers.
To calculate the true unemployment, including the under-utilization numbers, the Agency for Workforce Innovation told CBS4's Al Sunshine to add 8.1 percent to the unemployment rate for each month in 2011.
Based on that, the true unemployment numbers for Miami-Dade County this year have been at least 20 percent most of the year. In January, the unemployment rate, including all factors, stood at 20.2 percent. It dropped to 19.9 percent in February and then began climbing again in March (20.4 percent) and April (21.3 percent).
But in May, the last month of numbers released, the unemployment rate in Miami-Dade County soared to 21.8 percent.
Miami's Beacon Council painted the picture like this: from May 2010 to May 2011, Miami saw 3,700 new jobs added. But, another 3,000 jobs were cut. That means the net gain of jobs in the last year was 700.
Looking at the numbers year-over-year, the unemployment rate in Miami-Dade County hasn't dropped below 19.3 percent since last January, and has been at or above 21 percent for at least 3 separate months.
The numbers in Broward County are only marginally better. The true unemployment rate in Broward County is sitting at 17.1 percent for the month of May. Broward's unemployment rate has dropped from an 18.6 percent in January to a 2011-low of 17 percent in April.
Statewide, the true unemployment rate is roughly 18.6 percent in May, but has declined from a high of 19.6 percent in January. From the second quarter of 2010 to the end of the first quarter of 2011, Florida's actual unemployment rate stood at 18.8 percent.
